Method or image management in distributed cloud

ABSTRACT

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method of managing the distribution of images in a distributed cloud network by a network management system, including: receiving, by the network management system, a request for an image for a network node; identifying, by the network management system, an image from a plurality of images compatible with the network node; and initiating, by the network management system, installation of the image on the network node.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various exemplary embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to amethod for image management in a distributed cloud.

BACKGROUND

Deploying cloud infrastructure and software may include manycustomization factors that cloud customers must accommodate whenon-boarding software onto the cloud. Specifically, each cloud node maybe managed via specific providers, for example, CloudStack, OpenStack,etc. Further, the cloud node may use a specific hypervisor to manage thenode, for example, KVM, XEN, VMWare, etc. For each combination of theseproperties a different software image may be required. Further, adifferent setup process may be required to install the image dependingupon the various factors.

In the current state-of-the art, a customer that wants to deploy a givenimage at several cloud nodes must manage each independently. Thisrequires manually accessing each cloud node and targeting the specificneeds of each system. As a result, large applications installed on adistributed cloud may be very difficult and cumbersome to manage.Additionally, in a distributed cloud there may be considerablechallenges in image distribution that arise from security limitationsthat may block access between certain cloud nodes and image servers.

Additional issues exist. For example, there are differences between theimage registration parameters between the different providers, forexample, CloudStack requires a network location identifier such an URLindicating where the image is stored while OpenStack requires an inputstream. In another example, the cloud nodes might not be in the same DMZ(demilitarized zone or secure network segment) as the image server,which means that the cloud nodes might not be able to use the image URLto retrieve the image directly from the image server. Also, each cloudnode might be in a different DMZ, so two cloud nodes might not haveaccess to each other and so cannot pass the image URL from one cloudnode to another.

SUMMARY

A brief summary of various exemplary embodiments is presented below.Some simplifications and omissions may be made in the following summary,which is intended to highlight and introduce some aspects of the variousexemplary embodiments, but not to limit the scope of the invention.Detailed descriptions of a preferred exemplary embodiment adequate toallow those of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the inventiveconcepts will follow in later sections.

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method of managing thedistribution of images in a distributed cloud network by a networkmanagement system, including: receiving, by the network managementsystem, a request for an image for a network node; identifying, by thenetwork management system, an image from a plurality of imagescompatible with the network node; and initiating, by the networkmanagement system, installation of the image on the network node.

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a network management system thatmanages the distribution of images in a distributed cloud network, thenetwork management system including: a data storage; a processor incommunication with the data storage, the processor being configured to:receive a request for an image for a network node; identify an imagefrom a plurality of images compatible with the network node; andinitiate installation of the image on the network node.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to better understand various exemplary embodiments, referenceis made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a cloud including a network managerthat installs and manages images installed on cloud nodes in the cloud;

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a network manager;

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an image server;

FIG. 4 illustrates an image ID table;

FIG. 5 illustrates a cloud node image ID table;

FIG. 6 illustrates methods for registering images; and

FIG. 7 illustrates a method of creating cloud mode images fordistribution.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been usedto designate elements having substantially the same or similar structureor substantially the same or similar function.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of theinvention. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the artwill be able to devise various arrangements that, although notexplicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of theinvention and are included within its scope. Furthermore, all examplesrecited herein are principally intended expressly to be only forpedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principlesof the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor(s) tofurthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitationto such specifically recited examples and conditions. Additionally, theterm, “or,” as used herein, refers to a non-exclusive or (i.e., and/or),unless otherwise indicated (e.g., “or else” or “or in the alternative”).Also, the various embodiments described herein are not necessarilymutually exclusive, as some embodiments may be combined with one or moreother embodiments to form new embodiments.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals refer to likecomponents or steps, there are disclosed broad aspects of variousexemplary embodiments.

Because of the problems described above, there remains a need for acloud manager that manages the distribution of images on to a variety ofvarious cloud nodes that might be using different providers,hypervisors, operating systems, etc.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a cloud including a network managerthat installs and manages images installed on cloud nodes in the cloud.The cloud 100 may include a network manager 110, and image server, andcloud nodes 130, 140, 150.

The network manager 110 may provide various network managementfunctions. The network manager 110 may specifically manage theinstallation of images on cloud nodes 130, 140, 150 (collectively, cloudnodes). The network manager may communicate with and manage an imageserver 120 where various images are stored. The network manager 110 mayalso store images and related information on storage located in thenetwork manager 110 or external to the network manager 110. The networkmanager may send a URL indicating the location of the image to one ofthe cloud nodes. This URL may point to an image stored on either thenetwork manager 110, the image server 120, or any other suitable storagecommunicatively connected to the cloud node. The identified one of cloudnodes may then access the image using the received URL, and install thereceived image. The network manager 110 may also stream the image to thecloud node 130. Whether the network manager 110 sends a URL or streamsthe image depends the preferences and the abilities of the particularone of cloud nodes 130, 140, 150. Other known methods may be used by thenetwork manager 110, image server 120, and the cloud nodes 130, 140, 150to install an image on the cloud nodes 130, 140, 150.

The network manager 110 may also obtain a needed image from a cloud nodewhere the image is installed. In some of these embodiments, the networkmanager 110 obtains the needed image from a cloud node where the imageis installed when the needed image is not found at the image server 120or at the network manager 110. In this situation the needed image may bestored on the network manager 110 or the image server 120 for furtherinstallation on cloud nodes when needed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a network manager. The networkmanager 200 may be the same as the network manager 110. The networkmanager 200 may include a processor 230, data storage 240, and I/Ointerface 250, and an I/O communication channel 260.

The processor 230 may control the operation of the network manager 200and cooperate with the data storage 240 and the I/O interface 250, via asystem bus. As used herein, the term “processor” will be understood toencompass a variety of devices such as microprocessors,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), and other similar processing devices.

The data storage 240 may store program and other data such as variousprograms and data useful in implementing the functions described above.For example, the data storage 240 may store network manager instructionsfor performing various functions carried out by the network manager. Thedata storage 240 may also store data images in the image storage 224.The data storage 240 may also include an image ID table 226 and anetwork node image ID table 228.

The I/O interface 250 may cooperate with the processor 230 to supportcommunications over one or more communication channels. For example, theI/O interface 250 may include a user interface, such as a keyboard andmonitor, or a network interface, such as one or more Ethernet ports. TheI/O communication channel 260 may include various types of communicationprotocols and physical layers in order to manage the network.

In some embodiments, the processor 230 may include resources such asprocessors/CPU cores, the I/O interface 250 may include any suitablenetwork interfaces, or the data storage 240 may include memory orstorage devices such as magnetic storage, flash memory, random accessmemory, read only memory, or any other suitable memory or storagedevice. Moreover the network manager 200 may be any suitable physicalhardware configuration such as: one or more server(s), blades consistingof components such as processor, memory, network interfaces or storagedevices.

The image server 120 may store images for applications to be installedon cloud nodes 120, 140, 150. The image server 120 may provide imagesusing a URL, by streaming, or other known methods. The image server 120may provide images directly to cloud nodes 130, 140, 150 forinstallation or may provide images to the network manager 110 forinstallation to cloud nodes 130, 140, 150. Further, the image server mayprovide a URL that indicates the location of the image to be installed.Such URL may be provided directly to a cloud node 130, 140, 150 or tothe network manager 110. The network manager 110 may then send the URLto the cloud node requesting the image. Further, the network manager 110may store the URL for use later in satisfying a request for the image.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an image server. The image server300 may be the same as the image 120. The image server 300 may include aprocessor 330, data storage 340, and I/O interface 350, and an I/Ocommunication channel 360.

The processor 330 may control the operation of the image server 300 andcooperate with the data storage 340 and the I/O interface 350, via asystem bus. As used herein, the term “processor” will be understood toencompass a variety of devices such as microprocessors,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), and other similar processing devices.

The data storage 340 may store program and other data such as variousprograms and data useful in implementing the functions described above.For example, the data storage 340 may store image server instructionsfor performing various functions carried out by the image server. Thedata storage 340 may also store data images in the image storage 324.

The I/O interface 350 may cooperate with the processor 330 to supportcommunications over one or more communication channels. For example, theI/O interface 350 may include a user interface, such as a keyboard andmonitor, or a network interface, such as one or more Ethernet ports. TheI/O communication channel 360 may include various types of communicationprotocols and physical layers in order to manage the network.

In some embodiments, the processor 330 may include resources such asprocessors or CPU cores, the I/O interface 350 may include any suitablenetwork interfaces, or the data storage 340 may include memory orstorage devices such as magnetic storage, flash memory, random accessmemory, read only memory, or any other suitable memory or storagedevice. Moreover the network manager 300 may be any suitable physicalhardware configuration such as: one or more server(s), blades consistingof components such as processor, memory, network interfaces or storagedevices.

FIG. 4 illustrates an image ID table. The image ID table may include amachine-readable storage medium such as read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storagemedia, flash-memory devices, or similar storage media. Further, while atable is shown in FIG. 4 other data structures may be used to store theimage ID data. Specifically, each image may have an image ID as shown inthe first column. Each image may have further identifying informationassociated with it such as image type, OS type, OS bits, OS version, andcustomer ID. Other data may be included as well, and this list serves asan example of the type of date that may be stored. One additional typeof information may include a rule set. This rule set may specifyspecific steps needed to install the image. The table in FIG. 4 showssix images each with different characteristics. An image ID table mayinclude many more entries depending upon the specific applicationsavailable.

FIG. 5 illustrates a cloud node image ID table. The cloud node image IDtable may include a machine-readable storage medium such as read-onlymemory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media,optical storage media, flash-memory devices, or similar storage media.Further, while a table is shown in FIG. 5 other data structures may beused to store the cloud node image ID data. Specifically, each cloudnode image may have an cloud node image ID as shown in the first column.Each cloud node image ID may have further identifying informationassociated with it such as image ID, hypervisor, size, cloud node ID,and cloud node image UUID. Other data may be included as well, and thislist serves as an example of the type of date that may be stored. Thetable in FIG. 5 shows six cloud node image IDs each associated with acloud node having a specific image loaded thereon. An cloud node imageID table may include many more entries depending upon the specificnumber of cloud nodes.

When a customer requests some action to be taken for a given image,database operation may be conducted to determine for each location whatthe underlying infrastructure is at that location (for example,hypervisor, provider, etc.). Then the manner in which such an action isperformed may be tailored to that specific infrastructure. Such actionmay include, for example, deployment, removal, update, etc.

The cloud manager embodiment discussed herein has the ability to supportimage distribution within complex network architectures. As shown inFIG. 1, there may an image server (or multiple image servers) thatstores at least a portion of the images a customer may want to deploy.This image server may be maintained by a cloud provider, or by externalparties authorized by the cloud provider to deploy on the provider'scloud. The basic approach for such deployment of images may be for acustomer to provide an image URL, which is sent to an image server andused to retrieve the image from this server. Below differentfunctionalities that network the manager supports to deal with complexnetwork scenarios are discussed.

The network manger may provide the following capabilities for imagedistribution. First, in a first, basic configuration, the networkmanager may access all the cloud components. In this case the networkmanager may validate the URL from the image server, such as checkingthat it is indeed a valid URL and checking additional meta-data, andthen may distribute the URL to the requesting cloud nodes, allowing eachrequesting cloud node to download the image.

Second, in an additional configuration, the network manager may not beable to directly access the image server, and so it cannot verify theURL as in the first configuration. In this situation, the networkmanager may pass on the URL to the different requesting cloud nodeswithout this validation, but once an image is successfully installed andregistered on one of the requesting cloud nodes, the network manager maydownload the image from this cloud node and may use an HTTP server todistribute the images from the network node itself. Note that in thisconfiguration, it does not matter what type of node (i.e., CloudStack orOpenStack) is used. This not only allows for the network manager toaccess the image directly—it may also allow access to the image forcloud nodes that do not have access to the image server(s).

Third, an additional configuration considers the case where the imagedid not originate from the image server but rather from one of the cloudnodes, e.g., the image was created from a machine on an OpenStack node.This may happen, for example, when the command to create the image fromthe machine was issued using the network manager. The network managermay download the image and then provide a link that will distribute theimage to the remaining cloud nodes.

Finally, when a new node is added to the cloud, all the images may beautomatically distributed to this new node using the methods describedabove.

FIG. 6 illustrates methods for registering images. The method 600 hastwo branches illustrated by 605 and 645. The first branch illustratesregistering an image from a URL. At step 610, the network manager mayvalidate the URL, which may include checking the basic protocol and portto use. Next, at step 615, the network manager may validate the URLconnection and capacity. This may include checking the connection to theURL, and checking the user capacity relative to the image file size.Then the network manager may create an image file at step 620. If thereis an existing image file, it may be removed and a new file created.

Next, at step 625, the network manager may create cloud node images.This may depend upon the specific hypervisor where the image is to beinstalled and may depend upon the specific cloud provider. Further, ifthere is already a cloud node image associated with this image, a cloudnode image many not be created, but the existing cloud node image used.At step 630, the network manager may submit all new cloud images. Thecloud node images may be submitted by sending a URL to the cloud node orstreaming the cloud node image to the cloud node. Next, at step 635, thecloud node image may be registered on the cloud node. Finally, at step640, the cloud node images may be synchronized. The method may then endat step 665.

The second branch illustrates registering an image from an existingmachine snapshot 645. At step 650, an image file may be created thatincludes a basic container. Next, at step 655, an image file may becreated. Next, at step 660, a first cloud node image may be produced.The image may be registered on the cloud node zone of the machineproviding the snapshot. Next, the method 600 may proceed to step 625,and the method 600 may proceed as described above. The steps of method600 may be performed by the network manager or other elements of thecloud network.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method of creating cloud mode images fordistribution. This method may be carried out by the network manager orother elements of the cloud network. The method 700 may begin at 705.Next, at step 710 it is determined if the image download is a directdownload. If not, then at step 715, it is determined if the image URL isvalid. If the URL is valid, then at step 720, then the cloud node imageis registered using the default URL. Next, the method may end at 745. Ifthe image download is direct, then at step 725 it is determined if thereis a running cloud node image for the image. If so, then at step 730,the image may be downloaded into the network manager. Next, at step 735,the URL may be generated. The method may then end at 745. If there is norunning cloud node image for the image, then an error message may begenerated at 740. The method may then end at 745.

In the description above of various embodiments, it is noted thatvarious method steps are described. Such steps are described in acertain order. It is not intended that such an order is the only orderpossible. Therefore, other embodiments where the steps are performed indifferent orders are considered to be within the scope of the claims.Further, the use of the descriptors first, second, third, etc. are notintended to require that certain steps be carried out in a specificorder, rather these terms are used to differentiate multiple instancesof various distinct and separate elements of the same type that myappear repeatedly in the embodiments.

When processor-executable programs are implemented on a processor, theprogram code segments may combine with the processor to provide a uniquedevice that operates analogously to specific logic circuits.

Although depicted and described herein with respect to embodiments inwhich, for example, programs and logic are stored within the datastorage and the memory is communicatively connected to the processor, itshould be appreciated that such information may be stored in any othersuitable manner (e.g., using any suitable number of memories, storagesor databases); using any suitable arrangement of memories, storages ordatabases communicatively connected to any suitable arrangement ofdevices; storing information in any suitable combination of memory(s),storage(s) or internal or external database(s); or using any suitablenumber of accessible external memories, storages or databases. As such,the term data storage referred to herein is meant to encompass allsuitable combinations of memory(s), storage(s), and database(s).

It should be apparent from the foregoing description that variousexemplary embodiments of the invention may be implemented in hardware orfirmware, such as for example, the distributed access gateway.Furthermore, various exemplary embodiments may be implemented asinstructions stored on a machine-readable storage medium, which may beread and executed by at least one processor to perform the operationsdescribed in detail herein. A machine-readable storage medium mayinclude any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by amachine, such as a personal or laptop computer, a server, or othercomputing device. Thus, a tangible and non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory(RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memorydevices, and similar storage media.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any blockdiagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative circuitryembodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, it will beappreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transitiondiagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes whichmay be substantially represented in machine readable media and soexecuted by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer orprocessor is explicitly shown.

Although the various exemplary embodiments have been described in detailwith particular reference to certain exemplary aspects thereof, itshould be understood that the invention is capable of other embodimentsand its details are capable of modifications in various obviousrespects. As is readily apparent to those skilled in the art, variationsand modifications can be effected while remaining within the spirit andscope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing disclosure,description, and figures are for illustrative purposes only and do notin any way limit the invention, which is defined only by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of managing the distribution of imagesin a distributed cloud network by a network management system comprisinga processor, the method comprising: receiving, by the network managementsystem, configured to manage the distribution of images in thedistributed cloud network by the network management system, an imagerequest for a cloud network node, wherein the image request specifies atleast one requested image characteristic; identifying, by the networkmanagement system and based on the image request, an image compatiblewith the cloud network node from a plurality of images having the atleast one requested image characteristic; determining that theidentified image is installed on a second cloud network node;initiating, by the network management system, installation of the imageon the cloud network node from the second cloud network node onto thecloud network node; validating an URL by the network management system,checking that the URL is a valid URL and checking meta-data; anddistributing the URL to the image requesting cloud network nodes,allowing each image requesting cloud network node to download the image.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of images are stored onan image storage device.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the imagestorage device is an image server.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein theimage storage device includes an image identifier (ID) table.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the image storage device includes a cloudnode image ID table.
 6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:determining that the identified image is not available for retrievalfrom the image storage device.
 7. The method of claim 6, furthercomprises storing the identified image from the second cloud networknode on the image storage device.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein theplurality of images are stored on the network management system.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein initiating installation of the image includessending to the cloud network node a network location identifier to thelocation of the image.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein initiatinginstallation of the image includes streaming the image to the cloudnetwork node.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least onerequested image characteristic is an operating system type; and whereinthe plurality of images are stored with an associated image identifier(ID) table on an image server.
 12. A network management system thatmanages the distribution of images in a distributed cloud network, thenetwork management system comprising: a data storage; a processor tomanage the distribution of images in the distributed cloud network bythe network management system in communication with the data storage,the processor being configured to: receive an image request for a cloudnetwork node, wherein the image request specifies at least one requestedimage characteristic; identify, based on the image request, an imagecompatible with the cloud network node from a plurality of images havingthe at least one requested image characteristic; determine that theidentified image is installed on a second cloud network node; initiateinstallation of the image on the network node from the second cloudnetwork node onto the cloud network node; validate an URL by the networkmanagement system, checking the URL is a valid URL and checkingmeta-data; and distribute the URL to the image requesting cloud networknodes, allowing each image requesting cloud network node to download theimage.
 13. The network management system of claim 12, wherein theplurality of images are stored on an image storage device.
 14. Thenetwork management system of claim 13, wherein the image storage deviceis an image server.
 15. The network management system of claim 13,wherein the image storage device includes an image identifier (ID)table.
 16. The network management system of claim 15, wherein the imagestorage device includes a cloud node image ID table.
 17. The networkmanagement system of claim 13, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to: determine that the identified image is not available forretrieval from the image storage device.
 18. The network managementsystem of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to storethe identified image from the second cloud network node on the imagestorage device.
 19. The network management system of claim 12, whereinthe plurality of images are stored on the network management system. 20.The network management system of claim 12, wherein initiatinginstallation of the image includes sending to the cloud network node anetwork location identifier to the location of the image.
 21. Thenetwork management system of claim 12, wherein initiating installationof the image includes streaming the image to the cloud network node. 22.The network management system of claim 12, wherein the at least onerequested image characteristic is an operating system type; and whereinthe plurality of images are stored with an associated image identifier(ID) table on an image server.